November 14, 1987
by Tesla2251
Summary: Jeremy Fitzgerald is working the day shift, forced to be in clear view of the robots without his Freddy mask to save himself. While on the job, he learns something about the robots from an unlikely source, and is right front and center to the third tragedy to hit Freddy Fazbears Pizza. Will it kill a budding friendship forever?


***listens to Survive the Night by MandoPony, humming and swaying to the tune* Oh! Wait, an intro!**

**Well, here's a nice little story. I hope you like it. In this story, Phone Guy is named the same as in my "Fight of '14" story (Gordon Flint). I don't call him Fritz Smith because Fritz is fired the following day for 'tampering with the animatronics', so that can't be Phone Guy's name. But anyways, enjoy this little story. There is more to it so review to make this story come update quicker. Peace.**

Jeremy Fitzgerald sighed as he cruised through the camera feeds slowly, not remembering anything he saw. He'd only gotten five hours of rest since his night shift ended. Now he was back in the same room he'd nearly died in. The sunlight coming through the overhead skylight and the happy cheers of children did nothing to make this room look cheerier. If these kids were here at night, they'd have nightmares for life and never be the same. It was a miracle to Jeremy why he was still sane after this hellish week.

'_Just finish this job and I can kiss this place good bye forever.'_

He sighed and got up from his office to go out into the main dining room to make sure the animatronics didn't hurt anyone. Though Flint said they got on with the children, the adults were another thing. Ever since that child vanished a few days ago along with a spare costume in the backroom, the robots were hostile toward the parents and staff. Someone had gotten past the high tech safe guards this place employed.

Jeremy walked past the party rooms, made sure the 'Parts and Service' room was closed tightly, and walked into the Dining Room. The place was a hive of activity. Children ran around playing, parents sat at tables watching them, and the band wandered around playing with the kids.

As Jeremy walked around, he walked past Toy Freddy. The robotic bear stared coldly at him. Jeremy could have sworn as he walked past him, he'd heard the bear say, "I'm keeping my eye on you." He felt a nervous chill run down his spine at those words.

He walked over to the gift counter and slipped behind it for a moment. He was always curious why Flint had told him to keep the music box wound around this area. He'd said something about a puppet at one time, but never seen one. He saw a music box sitting near the gift box. A wire ran from it, up the wall, across the ceiling, and into the camera. That had to be how he wound it up.

The box was hinged so it would open when whatever was inside pushed it open. Jeremy looked at it curiously and decided it couldn't hurt to take a peek inside at this 'puppet-thing' Flint was so worried about. He lifted up a corner, opening the top a little so he could peek in a little. Jeremy bent down, put an eye into the corner and….

Suddenly the lid popped open, sending Jeremy to the floor. Jeremy screamed in surprise and shock as a large shadow was cast over him. Above the guard, stood a very skinny figure. It wore black clothes with white stripes on the heels and arms. It had three buttons on its chest, and a big white mask. It had the rosy cheeks the toy animatronics had, but it had something else on its face. Two dark blue streaks running down the eyes, like tears. It had no eyes, and its mouth was open in a large grin.

"Ha ha ha ha! That was fun!" the puppet giggled. Its voice sounded like a jovial clown would, even though this thing didn't look funny at all. It looked terrifying!

"Remember kids, you never know what surprise you're going to get here at Freddy Fazbears. So play some games and you could win a prize to remember such a fun day," the puppet addressed the room before diving back into its gift box.

A few kids giggled at the sight of Jeremy lying on the floor, almost as white as a ghost and his heart racing a mile a minute.

"He fell down!" one kid giggled.

"Looks like he saw a ghost!" another chuckled.

"Do you think he wet his pants?" a little girl giggled.

Jeremy stood, shaking off his nerves and ducked out into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

XXX

Jeremy finished his glass of water as the manager came in.

"Fitzgerald! Get back out there! The next show is starting, so get the kids out of Kid's Cove and to the dining room," he snapped. Jeremy leaped to it and hurried out of the kitchen before he realized where the manager told him to go.

Kid's Cove was home to the robot called The Mangle. The robot had started out as a replacement for Foxy the pirate fox. Then kids began taking the machine apart and putting it back together in a mess. Management had gotten tired of fixing it so the Mangle became a take-apart-put-back-together game for the younger kids. Now the only parts that remained of the original robot was its head, hands, and paws. The rest was all bare. And another animatronic head had been sloppily added on. During the nightshift, Jeremy was always keeping an eye on it whenever it was active. The creepy robot would always crawl along the ceiling like some demon or massive spider and glare down at him.

Jeremy didn't want to go see what shape the creepy bot was in now but he had no choice. He opened the door to Kid's Cove and went inside. The robot sat in the corner of the room with kids moving and playing with its limp parts. The thing looked in even worse shape today.

"Okay, kids," Jeremy announced, clapping his hands to get the kids attention. They stopped and looked at him. Jeremy felt a little nervous. He'd never dealt with kids much.

"It's almost time for Freddy's show so you better hurry to the dining room if you don't want to miss it," he said.

The kids all groaned at this.

"But I want to keep playing!" one girl said, pouting.

"It's okay," Jeremy soothed. "She'll still be here when the show is over."

The kids still didn't budge much. Jeremy thought for a moment before adding, "Come on everyone, you don't want to let Freddy and the band down thinking you didn't want to listen to their show."

The kids moaned and complained some, but in the end they didn't want to disappoint their idols. As the kids filed out of the room, Jeremy watched the robot with caution to make sure it didn't wake up. As the last child left, he turned and began to walk out of the room when a sudden hiss filled the air. He turned and looked back to see the Mangle sitting upright and glaring at him.

Jeremy froze with terror as the horrific creature stared him down. The robot sat up as if to stand before suddenly falling back down. Its voice box hissed with static that almost seemed like a growl. Exposed wires from the weeks and weeks of abuse arched and sparked on the exposed frame of the robot. Then a small 'pop' like a flash bulb was heard, followed by a small trail of smoke rising from the Mangle's mostly eyeless socket.

The Mangle stopped growling at Jeremy and its expression became softer. Almost exhausted. Jeremy edged away back toward the party, trying to put as much distance between him and this robot as possible.

"Wait!" a soft, static filled voice called.

Jeremy stopped and turned to look back at the robot. Mangle was looking at him with a soft expression.

"You're that g-guar-gua- that guard from that of-o-off-office. The one fro-fo-from the n-n-niiii-ght shift," it said, its damaged voice box repeating and skipping.

Jeremy gulped. This robot knew his face. And he was far from the safety of his office now.

"Don't w-wor-worry. I-I-I-I'm not go-goi-g- to attaaaa-ck you," the fox robot continued. "I just wan-waaaannnnn-wa- just want to taaaaaa-lk to you."

Jeremy stayed where he was; not wanting to make a wrong move if the mangled robot decided to attack.

"Why aren't you attacking me like usual?" he asked cautiously in case it incited the robot to pounce.

"It's thi-th-this fa-fac-faci-facial recgonit-recog-recognition ssssoftware," Mangle replied. "It- it- its turned off now. Te-tem-tepori-temporarily. It wor-wo it works some-sometimes with me as I-I-I- as I am so d-amaged."

"How is the software causing you to attack me? I'm not a criminal."

"But it's gener-gen-gen-generating false posi-positives. It- it co-comes and goes-oes with all of- all of us. We are- are ac-aca-actually frien-friend-friendly to-to-to-to all. But this-this-this program makes us a-act mean to adults because it says-says they are dang-dangerous to the children," the robot explained shakily.

"It's a new program, how can it be generating false positives?" Jeremy asked, scratching his head.

"It's new. Untest-untested," Mangle said with a shrug. "Gli-gli-glit-glitchy."

Jeremy wanted to not believe the robot because how could he tell if she was lying? Robots were new and people knew little about how they would think and react. But then Mangle did have a point. Facial recognition was very new, and it was bound to be buggy.

"Maybe, if the mana-manag- if the manager had it t-tur-turned off, we-we-we wouldn-woul-woudn't have problems with the pa-pare-parents," Mangle sighed, then looking up at Jeremy hopefully. "May-may-maybe you could t-tell him?"

Jeremy thought about how he could best respond to this question. The more he spoke with Mangle, the more at ease he felt about her.

"Well…," he said nervously, "I don't know… I mean, I'm just the new guy here. And I don't know what the manager would think about me making such weird suggestions from the robots. Not to say you are just robots, it's obvious you are more than that."

"O-o-oh…. I se-s-s-see," Mangle managed to hiss out."Still, I-I-I ho- I hop- I hope you don- don't hold it again-again-st us for be- for being hoooooo-stile toward you at n- ni- niiii-ght."

"Err… I don't know. I'll see about letting it go. You and your friends have tormented me all week, so it might take some time to see you differently."

Mangle gave a static filled sigh. She knew he was right. You can't just see someone differently all of a sudden after the first impression went wrong for almost a week.

"Well… uh…. See you… around I guess…," Jeremy said as he began to walk out.

"Wait!" Mangle suddenly said, lifting her remaining robot hand out to him. "I d-did-di-didn't get-get your name."

"Er…. Jeremy."

"Ni-nice to meet you-you, Jer-Jere-Jeremy," Mangle chocked out in an actually sweet tone before she shut down to conserve power.

Jeremy turned and left Kid's Cove. If that new system was really to blame and was giving false positives, it was no wonder the new toy robots were takings such a bad shine to adults. Even if the disappearance wasn't a factor, this certainly explained things. Maybe he could talk to the manager about turning off the facial recognition program, even if it was highly unlikely he would. The thought that these new robots could actually be friendly made Jeremy think about things a little.


End file.
